Chapter 14
The six opened their eyes simultaneously, suddenly aware of their positions.
“What in the leapin’ heck is goin on?” Applejack asked.
“Formations, girls!” Twilight commanded, “We’re all back together, and it’s time to finish this once and for all!”
The six sprang into action, setting themselves into ready positions to fight Sombra.
“It’s over Sombra!” Twilight proclaimed, “I’ve saved my friends, defeated their fears, and reunited us all! You can’t hope to stand against the power of our friendship!”
Sombra’s reaction was a long, loud, cold laugh that echoed through the trees.
“Oh, Twilight, how right you are!” The Shadow King said in mocking exaggeration “Truly the hour of my defeat is nigh! But before that, I should note, you still have one more nightmare to get through…”
“No I don’t!” Twilight yelled “I saved all my friends! I beat all the nightmares!”
“Foalish Niece, you still haven’t faced the most terrible of all my nightmares:
Yours.”
With that, King Sombra raised his hooves, slammed them on the ground, and all of reality seamed to shatter around her.
I’m still in the nightmare world! Twilight realized with horror, My nightmare world!
Twilight was falling, endlessly, and a bright light blinding her. When she finally could see again, the sight before her chilled her blood.
She was in the throne room of Canterlot Castle. Before her was Celestia, her tri-colored mane flowing, sitting on her raised throne and wearing a disapproving look.
“Twilight Sparkle!” Celesita boomed, her regal voice not kind or tender, “Even though you have failed me as a student, in my infinite mercy I shall grant you one last chance. Pass a simple trial and you shall move on to the next tier of your training. Fail and you will be banished from this court, this castle, and the lands of Equestria… FOREVER!”
And suddenly, Twilight forgot. She forgot that she was fighting an illusion made by Sombra, that this wasn’t the real Celestia, or that she wasn’t really in Canterlot. This was her nightmare, and it all seemed real to her.
“What do I have to do, Princess?”
The grand door opened behind Twilight, and in walked…
“You will fight five champions of my choosing,” Celestia decreed, “And I chose… The Elements of Harmony!”
In walked Twilight’s best friends, in formation and looking ready to fight.
Oh no…
***
In the real Equestria, the others slowly came back into consciousness.
“Where are we?” Asked Rainbow Dash as she looked around at the crystalline trees.
“Enjoy your rest, my little ponies?” asked a sinister voice.
The five looked over at King Sombra, who was standing there quite confidently.
“King Sombra!” Fluttershy cried, “So you’re the one responsible for all this havoc!”
“And for trapping us in those nightmares!” Applejack added.
“I’LL TEAR YOU TO PIECES!” Rarity yelled.
“Twilight!” Pinkie wailed.
The others spun around and realized that right next to them was Twilight, standing perfectly still with her eyes fully green.
“What have you done to her!?” Applejack demanded to know.
“I did to her as I did to all of you. I’ve trapped her in her worst nightmare. She’ll be trapped in there for the rest of her life, living out her worst fears until her dying days. But you really shouldn’t be concerned about her…”
Sombra gave a simple stomp of his hoof and all around them, eyes in the dark glowed with menace.
“You should be more worried about yourselves.”
***
Rainbow Dash slammed into Twilight, knocking the wind from her as she was sent flying across the room. Before she could even hit the ground, she was punted back across by a strong buck from Applejack, like Twilight was a tennis ball being hit back at an opposing player. Twilight hit the marble floor and tasted blood in her mouth. She looked up to see Rainbow nearly touching the high ceiling. The cyan Pegasus then dove at Twilight, nearly forming a Mach cone around herself as she hurtled towards her friend. But Twilight was too quick, and fired a spell from her horn, striking RD in her wings. The wings snapped shut like mousetraps and their owner’s face twisted in horror as she tried futilely to open them and pull out of her dive. Twilight scrambled out of the way just as Rainbow slammed into the ground with devastating force. Rainbow Dash lay unconscious twitching in the crater, hoisted on the petard of her own inertia.
Before Twilight could pat herself on the back, she felt a sharp pain in her flank. She looked down to see a trio of sewing needles embedded in her side like darts. Rarity used her magic to levitate a whole flurry of sewing needles and shot them at Twilight in rapid succession. Twilight only barely got her shield up in time as the needles ricocheted off in every direction. Pinkie Pie came up next to Rarity and aimed her party cannon at Twilight’s shield. Pinkie pressed the button and the cannon gave a mighty roar as it fired what looked like a piñata shaped like a cartoon bomb. On impact with Twilight’s shield, it exploded with titanic force, hurling candy and streamers in every direction, with Twilight’s shield barely maintaining its cohesion. As she held the shield up, she saw Applejack charging her position from her left. Twilight dropped her shield and rolled to avoid the stampeding Earth Pony. Applejack skidded to a halt, pivoted around, drew her lasso with her teeth, and threw it towards Twilight.
It would have wrapped cleanly around Twilight Sparkle’s neck if she hadn’t used her magic to grab the rope first. Swinging her head around violently, Twilight yanked on Applejack’s lasso, whipping the Earth Pony around with it. Too stunned to let go, Applejack was whirled over Twilight’s head and thrown towards Pinkie Pie and Rarity. An itch in Pinkie Pie’s ear allowed her to sense the attack and slide out of the way of her friend-turned-projectile. Rarity was not so lucky, as Applejack’s bulk slammed into her and sent them both skidding across the throne room. Twilight then fired a magical blast, not at the prone ponies, but at the support pillar next to them. The magenta blast hit the pillar, weakened it, and made it fall towards them. Rarity rolled out of the way in time, but the pillar came down hard on Applejack’s back legs and painfully pinned the orange mare.
Twilight winced as she heard bones break and Applejack cry out, but she didn’t have time to think about AJ’s pain as she was suddenly grabbed from behind and lifted off her hooves. She craned her head to see a full grown grizzly bear had her locked in a bear hug.
“Squeeze her!” Fluttershy commanded, and her bear minion obeyed, driving the air from Twilight’s lungs and she felt her ribcage threaten to break. In front of her, Pinkie Pie was back with a freshly loaded Party Cannon aimed at Twilight and her ursine attacker. Twilight mustered her energy just as Pinkie fired another explosive piñata, this one shaped like a football, and was able to teleport out of the bear’s grip in a burst of magenta light. The bear had a moment to look stunned and confused before the piñata hit him square in the stomach and exploded, knocking the bear head over heels across the room and into a wall. It slumped there, and whimpered weakly.
“Oh my gosh! Are you OK, Harry?” Fluttershy exclaimed as she went to tend to her wounded attack bear.
Twilight reappeared behind another pillar. She flattened herself against it and tried to give herself a few seconds to breathe.
“Two down with three more to go, Twilight,” Celestia called, “And you’re already resorting to hiding? Perhaps I chose my student too hastily? I clearly have if you’re already this tired from this trivial of a battle!”
Twilight felt a twinge of dejection at the Princess’ words. She felt bad to disappoint the Princess’ expectations; she was Celestia’s personal student, after all.
But then, as Twilight was just getting her breath back, it was suddenly taken away as something wrapped around her neck and drew her back against the pillar she was hiding behind. A scarf had wrapped its way around the pillar and was strangling Twilight, held there by Rarity’s magic. Struggling to keep herself breathing, Twilight magically summoned a pair of shears and snipped the scarf in half, freeing Twilight from its choking grasp.
“You fiend! This is Saddle Arabian wool!” The fashionista screamed as she furiously fired a magical blast at the pillar, blasting it apart and knocking Twilight off her hooves. Twilight lay on her side as she looked up to see Rarity over her, about to fire a magical blast down at her. Reacting quickly, Twilight fired first, her beam striking Rarity’s horn just as her own blast was about to come out. The interfering magicks caused magic feedback in Rarity’s horn, which glowed brightly for a second, and then detonated in Rarity’s face. She stumbled backwards and collapsed to the ground in unconsciousness, a smoking stump where her horn had been.
As Twilight got to her hooves, she saw a pink blur out of the corner of her eye and whirled around.
Too late.
“Hey, Twilight! Hoof bump!”
Pinkie Pie put her hoof on Twilight’s chest and the Unicorn spasmed and screamed as electricity from Pinkie’s buzzer surged through her body. Thinking quickly, Twilight used her magic to route all the electricity through her horn and then touched Pinkie’s forehead with it, sending the full charge back into the pink mare. Pinkie’s mane frizzed out in every direction as she gave out her own scream until the buzzer blew up in her hoof, knocking her away from Twilight.
Before Twilight could cast another spell to take Pinkie out of the fight, Twilight suddenly heard a hawk cry out and felt a deep slash along the back of her head. Twilight cried out and put a hoof on her bleeding head as she turned to see a flock of birds, with Fluttershy flying among them.
“Attack!! I mean… If you don’t mind…”
The flock dove at Twilight, a cawing, screeching flurry of sharp beaks and glistening talons. But before they could get to her, Twilight fired a massive spell that encapsulated the entire flock. In a flash the birds were transformed into flower petals, which swirled around Twilight in a gentle breeze.
Enraged at what had happened to her bird friends, Fluttershy dove at Twilight head on, screaming bloody murder. Twilight was getting tired, and she needed to save her magical energy, so she dealt with Fluttershy as simply as she could:
She spun around and bucked Fluttershy in the face as hard as she could.
Blood flew from Fluttershy’s nose and some of her teeth glistened as they sailed through the air. The yellow Pegasus hit the ground, slid a few feet, and didn’t get up.
Twilight was about to make sure Fluttershy was still breathing when she heard a sudden mechanical cocking sound. She turned to find she was dead in the sights of Pinkie Pie’s Party Cannon, barely fifteen feet away. Pinkie Pie wore a devilish grin and raised her hoof to hit the trigger, but Twilight was a step ahead of her. Using a basic telekinesis spell, Twi picked up a piece of rubble about the size of the cannon’s barrel from one of the destroyed pillars and flung it at the cannon. It lodged itself in the barrel right as Pinkie fired the cannon. The backfire was tremendous; evidently Pinkie Pie had elected to load her Party Cannon with cake batter instead of an explosive piñata. When the cannon detonated, it blew tan cake batter in every direction. Twilight flinched as some of the batter splattered her face, but she was unhurt. Pinkie Pie however…
“Ahhhh!! I can’t see!!” Pinkie screamed as she flailed about, covered from head to hoof in batter, “Batter in my eyes! MY EYES!!”
She was cut off as Twilight’s hoof socked her square in the face and knocked her to the ground.
Twilight Sparkle stood victorious over her friends, who lay about the destroyed throne room, unconscious or otherwise incapacitated. She was bleeding, bruised, and tired. But she had beaten them all.
“Not bad,” Celestia remarked, “But not good enough either! Clearly I overestimated the other Elements of Harmony… A final challenge is warranted!”
“You never said anything about a final challenge!” Twilight objected.
“Didn’t I?” was Celestia’s only response.
Twilight’s friends were just starting to get back on their feet when five blasts of black colored magic fired from behind Twilight and struck her friends. They screamed in momentary agony and exploded, leaving fine ash behind. Twilight gaped in horror at the sight and heard a dark chuckle behind her.
“Your final challenge will be a magic duel against King Sombra!” Celestia proclaimed.
She turned to see Sombra himself standing before her, seeming to tower over her, his eyes blazing with dark magic and his fangs barred.
“You’ve only seen shades and illusions of me before, Twilight Sparkle… Now you will see my true power!”